Une nouvelle approche pour évaluer l'état de conservation de l'os et du collagène pour les mesures isotopiques (datation au radiocarbone, isotopes stables du carbone et de l'azote)

Measuring the amounts of nitrogen and carbon in small quantities of ancient bones before radiocarbon dating using elemental analysis is a way to quantify the amount of preserved collagen and the quantity of exogenous contaminating carbon. Such a measurement can be performed on a large number of samples and allows to sort out the specimens with the best preserved collagen, those with the most carbon contamination, and eventually to infer relationships between burial conditions and collagen preservation. This approach is most interesting as a preliminary method to use before attempting radiocarbon dating using accelerator mass spectrometry of bone collagen.